Scientific Research of Innovation Ability of Universities in the United States of America and China

Abstract

A better understanding of the universities’ ability to innovate can assist policymakers in identifying the key strengths and weaknesses and policy changes required to improve a nation’s innovation performance. However, no nation’s innovation system is the same as another due to various factors; thus, each system is unique and must be understood in this context. Hence, this study investigated the innovation ability of universities in the United States of America (US) and China from 1996 to 2021 using the system GMM technique. The findings of the study can be grouped into three themes: (i) research and development funding, the number of researchers engaged in research and development, and the number of colleges and universities influencing the impact of the innovation ability of universities across the countries; (ii) the innovation ability of Chinese universities is converging with that of US universities; thus, the gap between the innovation ability of Chinese and US universities is being narrowed—hence, declining; (iii) the innovation ability of Chinese and US universities improves the level of labor productivity, employment opportunities, and income classification group of the countries.